


Me Too.

by EllyAvon



Series: Everyone Is Poly Because Avengers [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Awesome Pepper Potts, Everyone Is Poly Because Avengers, F/M, M/M, Natasha Is a Good Bro, Polyamory Negotiations, Pre-OT3, Seriously the D/s is vague, Snuggling, Who doesn't have a crush on Steve?, tony is tony, vague D/s
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-20
Updated: 2015-09-20
Packaged: 2018-04-22 11:17:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4833401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllyAvon/pseuds/EllyAvon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Well, PoThangFanfic wanted to know how Tony and Pepper's talk went. I didn't think it needed its own fic, until it suddenly did. So, hey, here it is!</p><p>After consulting Natasha about his crush on Steve-- Tony has to go and talk to Pepper.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Me Too.

Tony is still slightly boggled when he enters the master bedroom. Pepper is already in bed, her copper hair piled on her head in a mussed bun. Her collarbones are lovely, dusted with freckles, barely visible through the neck of his Black Sabbath tee that she's appropriated as pajamas. Her eyes flick up from the battered paperback she's been reading in page by page increments. She doesn't smile at him, not really, but her face softens, and she looks cozy, happy, content.

He smiles at her, and, glad he thought to dress in his pajamas already, climbs into the bed to put his head in her lap. Their blankets are huge and downy, and her bare legs are warm. Just being close to her makes some of the tension melt from his shoulders and neck. She threads the hand that isn't holding the book through his hair and begins to run her fingers through it, scratching gently at his scalp. It is the very safest he’s ever been in his life, he thinks. It seems strange, but maybe not so strange, considering his self-destructive tendencies, that he wants to tell her he's got a crush on their roommate. That he knows she’s got a crush on their roommate. That he’s pretty sure their roommate, Captain Goddamn America, has a crush on them too.

It’s ridiculous that he wants to tell her these little items now when things between them are so good and steady. He wishes, just briefly, that he could run back to Natasha’s suite and ask her more questions. But she’s long gone doing exciting spy nonsense.

"Learned some gossip, y'wanna hear it?" He asks, nuzzling into her stomach affectionately.

"I'm reading," she replies, then adds, “and stocks are down,” but he knows she wants to know.

"Barton," he begins, fully ignoring the stock situation (when he’s done with the new tablets none of that will matter for months) and wriggling so that more of him is entangled with her, "is with Widow _and_ Agent Agent."

She doesn't bat an eyelash, but she does set her book down, so that she can place one cool hand on the back of his neck and pet down his spine, "Do you mean currently or in a romantic sense?"

"No, fuck knows where any of those three are, I can't pin any of them down long enough to plant a tracker in--"

"Tony, we talked about the sub-dermal tracker thing," she says blandly. "It's not nice to implant devices in your teammates' skin and trace their whereabouts," she pauses, looking mildly disturbed that this is her life, "actually, it's illegal. It's assault and stalking, so really."

"Yeah, well, couldn't catch those sneaky spies anyway,” he pouts, “But seriously. _Barton._ Barton and _Agent._ "

"Yes, Clint and Phil have been together for-- oh, four years in September? Natasha and Clint go much further back, I believe they're both of the opinion that their meet cute remains _very highly classified."_

"Maybe statute of limitations isn't up ye-- hey! You knew!" He gasps, "withholding valuable information!"

"You _didn't_ know?" She makes it clear that this is intel he should have had-- perhaps it was included in a quarterly report that ended up under a coffee cup or tangled in DUM-E’s wheels. More likely she had mentioned it in an email.

"Barton getting laid is downright improbable. Barton being in two separate successful long term relationships is, quite frankly, nothing short of magic. And I do not trust magic."

"Be nice to Clint," she says mildly, "he's got rotten luck in every other way. I swear if I see him without a bandage on his face I won't recognize him."

"He _needs_ two people to keep him in line," Tony says, with no malice in his tone. Nobody on the team had a particularly fuzzy upbringing, not even Pepper. He has to admit Clint’s childhood is one of the worst, second only to Natasha’s-- whose upbringing was more like a brainwashing than anything. It's a wonder she's so perceptive and helpful now, quite frankly.

"You need a whole team and protocols to keep you in line, so I wouldn't get all judgy about it," she says with a half-gentle tug on his hair.

They lie there in silence for a long while, comfortable and quiet. There isn’t a lot of quiet time in their lives. Pepper jet-sets all over the planet and Tony’s engineering/Avenger hours are as unpredictable as they come. This, the two of them in bed, in their pajamas, at a relatively normal time-- it’s hard-won. Tony thinks about Steve.

He thinks about Steve’s arms and cheeks and the way that he laughs. He thinks about his daydream from Natasha’s bedroom. Daydream Steve knelt on the floor, with Daydream Pepper’s hands on his shoulders for balance, while he gently coaxes her feet into violent red heels like she’s his personal Cinderella. Just to check, just to make sure he’s not doing something stupid, Tony tacks on a mental image of Daydream Steve rising fluidly, and giving her a chaste little kiss. Daydream Pepper smiles and leans into it, pulling him closer by his shirt, kissing him with hot, brutal efficiency. Daydream Steve, not to be outdone, reaches down for a handful of her ass. And then they turn to him, two sets of blue, one the sky and one the sea and--

Damn. Yes. Okay, yes. He does, in fact, have to talk to her about this.

Plus, if Natasha’s right, Pepper wants him. He can’t deny Pepper the things she wants, can he?

“You don’t think it’s weird?” he asks after a moment.

“That you need a team and protocols to avoid dying of malnutrition or carbon monoxide poisoning?” she says wryly.

“No, him being in two relationships.”

“It’s unusual, but they’re all very happy. No one in this tower has ever let social conventions stop them from doing what they want. That's not in the superhero handbook.”

“What about us?”

As though sensing that the conversation has turned earnest, she hooks a finger under his chin and tilts his head up to meet her gaze, “What about us, Tony?”

“Are we letting social conventions stop us from doing what we want?”

Pepper raises an amused eyebrow, “What are you talking about, you precious, insufferable man?”

He draws in a breath and attempts to break their eye contact, but she stares him down, her head cocked affectionately. “Steve?” he says tentatively.

Her breath is sharp and her cheeks go pink with surprise or shame or heat, he’s not sure which. “Oh, Tony,” she murmurs, touching his face reverently, “no, I wouldn’t. Of course I'm attracted to him but you--"

"Me too," Tony blurts out. "I... Me too."

She goes still, briefly, but then resumes petting his hair and stroking his neck.

"He is special, isn't he?" She murmurs, and he runs his fingers up and down her thigh, imagining he can trace the freckles there.

"And how," Tony says, thinking about the way Steve lights up when he hears good music, how he looks when he comes back from a literal marathon jog, the confidence of his Captain voice. It's a lot of special for one man.

"We are not the only two people on the planet with ridiculous crushes on Captain America." She scoffs, but cups her hand on the back of Tony's head protectively, like she can shield him from the pain of rejection.

“Natasha says he’s in love with us.” He informs.

This gives her pause, and she leans back on the headboard. “Natasha says?”

“Yeah, she said, well, a lot of things, but mostly that. And that we should talk. She was really insistent on that part. So I’m talking, whee.”

“You’re actually serious about this,” she says distantly. “You went to talk to Natasha?”

“Natasha's the closest approximation of a sister that I have access to,” he realizes what he’s said, and hedges quickly, but he can feel Pepper smiling that silly _Tony has a Friend_ smile, “Or something, you know, she’s like, wise. She knows everything. Anyway, me and you, we’re both a mess over Captain America, and the world’s best intelligence says he’s a mess for us too. I vote sexytimes for everyone.”

“Are you suggesting a threesome or a relationship?”

Tony is about to say threesome, because that would make this so easy. He doesn’t. He’ll lie to Pepper about where he is, whether he’d eaten, how close to done he is with whatever he’s working on… but this feels different. Then again, he’s actually not entirely sure what he does want, besides Pepper and Cap and him. Those parameters aren’t exactly limiting.

He gives a falsely noncommittal full-body shrug, "Yes to both?"

Pepper’s smile is slow, sultry, dangerous, and she tilts her head down to him for a kiss that he feels to the tips of his toes, then she murmurs, “both is good.”

“Very good,” Tony agrees, wiggles his way further up so that their chests line up and he's flopped haphazardly on top of her. He catches another kiss, and enjoys sliding his hands up her ribcage, stopping just below her breasts.

She sighs, "what do we do if he only wants one of us? That's assuming he's okay with it at all."

"He wants both of us, but he is kind of a---"

"Traditional man, in some ways,” Pepper fills in before Tony can say something he regrets.

"If he only wants one of us, we'll figure it out," he says stubbornly.

Pepper raises a half-amused eyebrow, “We’ll just figure it out?”

“If he doesn’t want us at all, we have each other. If he only wants you, we have each other, if he only wants me, we have each other. Simple enough.”

“And what about when you get jealous? What about when I get jealous?” She gives his hair a tug. She can be a little bit possessive. Steve is _already_ a little possessive and they aren’t even anything. But, Tony’s brain works fast, and he started making plans for having the two of them distract one another between his room and Natasha’s. He’ll watch the security footage later. It’s going to be awesome. Okay, maybe creepy of him, but still, awesome.

“Then it’ll be the same as when you get jealous now, you ask for attention, I give it.” He scoots down so he can nuzzle into her neck, where she’s so warm and smells so good, and adds, “I can be obedient, you know.”

“Brat,” she says, and kisses the top of his head. “You’re the genius, Mr. Stark, you really think we should do this?”

“My degrees are in physics, electrical engineering and - well, I have seven and none of them are about humans, not really. But yeah. I think it’s worth a go.”

He guesses she’s making deeply contemplative face,“You thought driving in the grand prix was _worth a go.”_

“I think a lot of ridiculous and/or kickass things are worth a go. Many of them have spectacular results. But this especially. The ROI has great potential, Ms. Potts.”

He can feel her grinning as she raises her chin, “JARVIS, please compose an email to Steve inviting him to meet with us at nine tomorrow in the den.”

“Of course, Ms. Potts,” he replies amiably.

She turns her attention back to petting Tony’s head and kissing him intermittently. He returns the favor by snaking his hands behind her back and kneading along her shoulders and spine. Their kisses are light and soft and full of that special kind of intimacy bred by years of contact and compromise.

"Captain Rogers has accepted your invitation," JARVIS reports, “and advises he looks forward to it.”

“Well then,” she says, sliding down under the covers so that they’re nose-to-nose, “I suppose we’ll find out in the morning, won’t we?”

“I can’t wait to see his face,” Tony says, and kisses her nose.

“Mmm, either way he takes it that part will be a treat, won’t it?”

“They way he _blushes,”_ he blurts out.

“I _know,”_ she sighs, a blush creeping on her own cheeks at the mention.

Tony had very few friends as a teenager, and fewer crushes, but he imagines this is what it would be like to be at a sleepover. Safe, happy, huddled together in the darkness, talking about boys and knowing there would be no judgement.

“He’s dreamy,” he gushes with unnecessary vigor, bringing a hand up to his cheek.

“You should talk,” she says, and kisses him.

Tony stops thinking about this moment as a teen-girl sleepover, because she kisses him with a quiet growl. He has no idea what Steve will say tomorrow, but this conversation, at least, has been worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> Un-Beta'd! Please advise if you find any typos/grammar/spelling problems.
> 
> I also take other comments :) 
> 
> Yes, I did write this series out of order, yes there will be more, someday, somehow!


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